All Your Fates (Currently editing/updating)

Chapter 28: Suave as a Mofo ~ Tom Liljeholm

Part three of three written by Tom Liljeholm

***Trigger Warning for Violence***

DAVID's POV

I quickly grabbed my beer bottle and smashed it against the bar to point the sharp broken glass in Gabriel’s general direction. Gabriel responded by smiling with just one corner of his mouth and said: “There there, cowboy. Put that down before you hurt yourself.”

“If you come one step closer I swear to god I will cut you in so many places...” I frothed, my spine tight from memory from the last time he tried to kill me.

Gabriel interrupted me with heartily laughter and raised his hands in a surrendering gesture as he smiled and leaned in close to my ear.

“Rosie there has a twelve gauge rifle behind the counter, and if you don’t want that pretty smile of yours to be wiped off clean, I suggest you stop monkeying around,” Gabriel said in a sticky sickening sweet voice.

I looked back over my shoulder and could see the bartender reaching for something under the counter, all the while looking mighty concerned about what we were up to. I put the broken bottle back on the counter and gave Gabriel a big hug. Every inch of my being was pulling me in every direction but into Gabe’s arms, but I realized that it was the only way to save my neck. I tried to sell it with a smile, but I just couldn’t. Gabe managed to sell the illusion that it had just been a bad joke:

“Oh David, you always did have a twisted sense of humor. I’ve missed you!” Gabriel laughed and set me down, then pulled a bundle of money from his wallet and set it on the wet bar beside the broken glass. “For your troubles,” Gabriel addressed Rosie, “You know…boys, will be boys.”

“Why don’t we go somewhere a bit quiet? Let’s grab a booth in the corner,” I said in an attempt to get out of the bartenders field of view. But Gabe apparently knew exactly what I was doing and responded: “Why don’t we just take a seat right here?” 

So we sat in plain view of the girl with the gun under the counter.

Gabriel looked up at the row of bottles and down to Rosie, “Could you please get me a six of Tactical Nuclear Penguin”? 

She smiled at him, clearly still shaking the shock from before. “On a bit of a spending spree today are we?”

Gabe winked at her, suave as a mofo: “Women like you just make me want to pull out all stops.” 

Rosie laughed and poured Gabe a glass of thick-looking liquid out of something that looked like a shiny beer bottle. Gabe took a long sip and then turned to me. Before he could say anything I spoke first.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. Somehow, I knew…Gabriel was different. There was only…one of him, despite how many contexts he fit in. 

“Oh David, I told you: I missed you!” Gabriel purred, and then winked at me.

My face turned red. 

“I wanted to make sure you were alright. A man can go insane looking for something for this long after he’s already realized that he’s not going to find it,” Gabe chided at my obvious despair.

“I’m going to find her. I will find her,” I said through gritted teeth. 

“Oh I hope that you do, David. I really do. I don’t think that I can stand seeing you like this anymore. Myself I’ve quite frankly lost interest. Sure, Emma was hot. But I think I might have been missing what was right in front of me this entire time,” Gabriel smiled at me with sharp teeth.

Gabriel stroked me on the cheek. What kind of sick game was he playing? Not long ago, I distinctly remember him trying to kill me -- and now he was trying to what..? Seduce me? Not likely.